1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of grouping images according to information related to the images, and particularly, to an image information processing apparatus and an image information processing method that group images by evaluating variations in temporal intervals in each group of images. The present invention also relates to a computer readable medium that stores a program for processing images.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of techniques have been proposed in recent years for automatically grouping still images taken with digital still cameras or videos shot with digital video cameras. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-94762 discloses a technique of dividing images into groups at each part where a temporal interval variation is larger than a threshold value, so that the image groups thus formed may match user's feeling of image grouping.
This related art groups images according to only the shooting time of each image and never considers unity in each group or variations in the numbers of images among groups. In addition, the related art evaluates interval variations among images when grouping the images, and therefore, resultant image groups are greatly influenced by conditions under which the images have been taken. As a result, each image group formed according to the related art has a possibility of showing no unity. There is, therefore, a necessity of a new grouping technique that evaluates shooting interval variations in each group of images and considers unity in each group and variations in the numbers of images among groups.